Mark and Phillis [was: coloured folk: to clarify]

[Wilson Gray]

At 7/21/2011 01:44 PM, Baker, John wrote:
> In an account written 23 years after his ride, http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/ride-letter-to-Belknap.html, Revere wrote,

"After I had passed Charlestown Neck, and got nearly opposite where
Mark _was hung_ in chains ..."

>From the film, Blazing Saddles,

Charlie:
"You shifty nigger! They said you _was hung_!"

Bart:
"And they was right."

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain


On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 2:18 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Mark and Phillis [was: coloured folk: to clarify]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I agree with what John writes. Â Goodell's "The trial and execution,
> for petit treason, of Mark and Phillis" is certainly the best
> description of the case. Â Revere's report is ambiguous; one wishes he
> had written "had been" hung in chains. Â Goodell takes it as "alluding
> to the site of the gibbet as a place well known at that time" (the
> point above Charlestown neck where the road to Cambridge began), not
> that Revere actually saw Mark's body still hanging. Â Although Mark's
> body was reported (in 1813) to have remained on the gibbet "until a
> short time before the revolution", the latest (I suppose) "certain"
> sighting that Goodell reported is 1758, not long after the execution.
>
> Joel
>
> At 7/21/2011 01:44 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>> Â  Â  Â  Â  In an account written 23 years after his ride,
>>http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/ride-letter-to-Belknap.html, Revere
>>wrote, "After I had passed Charlestown Neck, and got nearly opposite
>>where Mark was hung in chains, I saw two men on Horse back, under a
>>Tree." Â That seems to me to be ambiguous as to whether the body was
>>still there in 1775, although it was certainly long gone when Revere
>>wrote in 1798. Â Mark was hanged in 1755 for petit treason (the killing
>>of his master, considered a crime more serious than murder). Â As with
>>some other very serious crimes, such as piracy, he was first hanged, and
>>then his body was brought to the gibbet to be left there in chains until
>>it disintegrated over a period of years. Â Mark's body is said to have
>>remained on the gibbet until a short time before the Revolution, so it
>>likely was removed shortly before or after Revere's ride. Â For anyone
>>who is interested, there is a full discussion of Mark's case at
>>http://books.google.com/books?id=GXSWgxS8B7cC.
>>
>>
>>John Baker
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>>Of Wilson Gray
>>Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2011 4:09 AM
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Re: coloured folk: to clarify
>>
>>On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 9:33 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>> > Phillis was the name of one of the two slaves executed for the murder
>> > of John Codman in Charlestown, Mass., in 1755. Â (The other slave
>> > condemned was hanged, and then his body was left on the gibbet in
>> > Charlestown for a number of years. Â Paul Revere mentions the location
>> > "where Mark was hanged" -- it was at a crossroads -- in his
>> > description of his ride, but it's not likely the body was still
>> > hanging then; rather, he was probably using the location as a
>> > "landmark" to describe his route.)
>> >
>>
>>Good to know!
>>
>>--
>>-Wilson
>>-----
>>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>>to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>-Mark Twain
>>
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